A new class-action lawsuit filed in the US against Beyoncé’s company Parkwood Entertainment will be triggering a few urgent meetings within management companies and labels in the week ahead, we suspect.
The lawsuit has been filed on behalf of a fan in New York called Mary Conner, who is blind. It argues that Beyoncé’s own website isn’t properly accessible for her and other visually-impaired fans. “Plaintiff dreams of attending a Beyonce concert and listening to her music in a live setting. However, when she browsed the Beyonce.com website, she encountered numerous barriers which limited her accessibility to the goods and services offered on the website,” claims the lawsuit filing. “Web accessibility requires that alt-text be coded with each picture so that a screen-reader can speak the alternative text while sighted users see the picture. There are many important pictures on Beyonce.com that lack a text equivalent… As a result, Plaintiff and blind Beyonce.com customers are unable to determine what is on the website, browse the website or investigate and/or make purchases.” A reminder to other artists’ teams to brush up their knowledge on accessibility guidelines, surely.
Image Courtesy of Pete Sekesan
“DW2Q0596” (CC BY 2.0) by psekesan
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